Game 24: Villanova Wildcats (12-11, 5-7 BIG EAST) vs. Seton Hall Pirates (15-8, 8-4 BIG EAST)
Sunday, Feb. 11 • Philadelphia, Pa. • Wells Fargo Center (20,478) • 12 p.m.
TV: CBSSN • Tom McCarthy & Pete Gillen
Web: cbssports.com/watch/cbs-sports-network
Radio: SHU Pirates Mobile App / Pirate Sports Network / SiriusXM 380 / SXM App 970 / Gary Cohen & Dave Popkin
Game Notes: Seton Hall | Villanova
Follow Along: Instagram | X | Live Stats​

NOTES YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Winners of back-to-back games following a three-game skid, the Seton Hall men's basketball team will hit the road this weekend to take on Villanova at Wells Fargo Center for a 12 p.m. tip.
• Picked to finish ninth out of 11 teams in the BIG EAST preseason poll, the Pirates are in sole possession of third place in the BIG EAST standings with a record of 8-4.
• Seton Hall is one of only 20 teams in Division I with at least four Quad 1 wins.
• Seton Hall is one of 14 teams in the country with multiple wins over top 10 teams.
• Of the Pirates' eight wins in BIG EAST play, three have come against ranked opponents (No. 5 UConn, No. 23 Providence, No. 7 Marquette).
• Dre Davis continued his torrid play on Wednesday as he posted his second consecutive double-double with a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds in Seton Hall's 76-70 win over Georgetown.
• That performances was preceded by Davis' 16-point and career-best 12 rebound performance in the Pirates' 33-point win at DePaul.
• Davis' performance landed him a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll on Monday, his first conference honor as a Pirate.
• Davis has scored in double-figures in the last 13 games and in 20 of Seton Hall's 23 games this season.
• Davis is averaging 16.3 ppg, 8.3 rpg and shooting 50 percent over his last four games
• After posting the best season by a first-year head coach in program history, Shaheen Holloway is once again raising the bar for Seton Hall head coaches as he approaches two milestones for second-year head coaches in South Orange.
• The 76-70 win over Georgetown on Feb. 7 gave Holloway 18 BIG EAST victories as head coach at Seton Hall, the most in program history for a head coach in his first two seasons:

Most Wins Most BIG EAST Wins
1. Kevin Willard (2010-12) - 34 1. Shaheen Holloway - 18
2. Shaheen Holloway (2022-24) - 32 2. Tommy Amaker - 17
3. Tommy Amaker (1997-99) - 30 3. Louis Orr - 15
Richie Regan (1960-62) - 30 Kevin Willard - 15

• In his second game back on the court after missing two games, Kadary Richmond posted 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the win over the Hoyas.
• The performance was Richmond's sixth game this season with 20+ points, 5+ rebounds and 5+ assists, second-most among Div. I players this season.
• Jaden Bediako leads the BIG EAST and ranks fifth in Division I averaging 4.1 offensive rebounds per game.
• Seton Hall will face Villanova for the 127th time on Sunday, making the Wildcats the Pirates' most frequently played opponent.
• Shaheen Holloway and head coach Kyle Neptune have had similar career paths; both are from New York City (Neptune, Brooklyn; Holloway, Queens), both started as video coordinators at their current institutions, both served their first full-time assistant coaching jobs at MAAC schools (Neptune, Niagara; Holloway, Iona) and both went head-to-head as assistants on the court and on the recruiting trail from 2013-2018 at their current schools.
• Both teams are among the top free throw shooting teams in the BIG EAST and the country with Villanova leading the conference and Div. I shooting at an 82 percent clip from the stripe and Seton Hall ranking 13th nationally and third in the BIG EAST shooting 78 percent.
• The Pirates are 13-3 this season when Al-Amir Dawes scores in double figures and 6-1 when he's the team's leading scorer.
• Seton Hall is 14-1 this season when leading at halftime.

Fanta doing PBA Bowling on FS1 after the Marquette game. The kid is all over the place.

Creighton (7-5) at Xavier (7-5)

Providence (6-6) at Butler (6-6)

No way the DNC trots out the Dementia Clown Puppet again.

The firm of McCarthy, Gillen and Rothstein

Not much change from last week

To date

1. Hurley
Antics can be embarrassing but there's no doubt he can coach

2. Holloway
Making a name for himself again

3. Matta
Guess he hasn't lost it after all

4. English
Can anyone other than Sha/Miller beat him on his own court

5. Smart
6 in a row moves him up. But 2 games against UConn will tell the story

6. Miller
Handling the injuries well. 3 wins in a row albeit as favorites

7. Pitino
Next three games will give a better idea

8. McDermott
Preseason top ten to 16-7, 7-5 which should be 15-8, 6-6 if the whistle at the Rock was fair

9. Neptune
The natives are getting restless

10. Cooley
Once respected now vilified

11. Stubblefield/Brady
It almost doesn't matter who coaches this mess

We can really give our metrics a lift with a road win against Nova. You can’t underestimate their talent level and potential match up issues down low (or up high) with Dixon. With that said, this should be seen as a winnable game and a big opportunity that hopefully we’re ready for.

Try to get to South Philly for a game where we haven’t seen the Nova faithful this unconfident in a long time.

It’s happening….

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My guess is that we have 17 wins on March 6th when we play Nova at home.

This will be our NCAA play in game. Get your tickets now!

Does anyone else think this game or another is the make or break game?

Coming off a much-needed week off after going 1-3 in their previous four games, Seton Hall faced a must win game against a league foe at the bottom of the conference standings.

The Pirates reacquainted themselves to the winning column, defeating the Georgetown Hoyas 76-70 for a sweep of the season series Wednesday night at the Prudential Center.

With the victory, Seton Hall (15-8, 8-4) notched its seven straight win over Georgetown (8-14, 1-10) and evened the all-time series against the Hoyas at 60-60, something that seemed improbable just a decade or two ago.

The Pirates got off to a quick start, connecting on their first three field goals, before proceeding to go scoreless over the next three minutes and allowing the Hoyas to knot the score at 10 apiece. Despite some rust from the week layoff, which included three full days off for Seton Hall’s short rotation, the Pirates never trailed in the matchup.

“Big East basketball, man. When you have a long layoff like we had, you kind of want to see how we would get back on the court, the sense of urgency we were going to have. I thought we came out with some juice, not in the first four minutes, but after that, I thought we had some juice the whole first half and from there, it was kind of just going with the flow, right?” Head Coach Shaheen Holloway said, in the post-game press conference.

Georgetown closed the score to 16-15 with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half on a three from Jayden Epps before Seton Hall’s three captains, graduate guard Al-Amir Dawes, senior forward Dre Davis and senior guard Kadary Richmond, took over and scored on three consecutive possessions to extend the lead to 22-15.

Seton Hall entered the second half with a five-point lead, 38-33, and would extend it to their largest of the game, 51-40, just five minutes into the half on a baseline pull-up jumper from Dawes to cap an 11-3
Pirates run with Richmond and graduate center Jaden Bediako on the bench with three fouls each.

The Hoyas however would not go away quietly, cutting the score to 56-53 on a dunk by Supreme Cook with just over six minutes remaining in the contest, but Richmond and Davis had all the answers for The Hall as they reeled off six straight points to give the home team some breathing room at 62-53 with five minutes to go.

Davis led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, including 15 in the first half, and notched his second career and second consecutive double-double with 10 rebounds, to go along with two assists, two blocks and a steal.

“I think it’s a credit to the work he’s putting in every day. He’s one of those guys that’s an everyday guy, he’s been an everyday guy since he’s been here ... He’s been our workhorse and everything he’s doing, we need it a lot ... Dre carried us today, but he had a good week of practice too,” Holloway said, after the game.

Those sentiments were echoed by Georgetown’s Ed Cooley after the game with the first-year head coach saying, “He was great today, I thought he was the difference-maker today.”

Richmond filled up the stat-sheet in typical fashion, recording 20 points, including 13-16 from the charity stripe, seven rebounds, eight assists, one block and one steal, while Dawes was the only other Pirate in double figure with 11 points.

Seton Hall also received quality production from one of its reserves as junior center Elijah Hutchins-Everett tallied nine points, seven rebounds (three offensive), one assist and one steal in 25 minutes off the bench as Bediako was plagued with foul trouble throughout the game, playing 15 scoreless minutes and securing just four rebounds.“

I thought tonight was good for Elijah. He came in and I thought we needed him to bang against Supreme, and he did a good job,” Holloway said.

The Pirates will look to notch a second consecutive win when they travel to Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center to square off with Villanova on Super Bowl Sunday at noon.

Pirate Big East Tournament Tip-Off​

Help if you can.

I'll push this more as the event nears.

By Zach Braziller

MILWAUKEE — Rick Pitino wanted to set the record straight about his son, Richard, and the succession plan he talked about after Tuesday’s win over DePaul.

“I was kidding,” he said.

Asked about the DePaul opening and rumors that Richard, currently the head coach of No. 25 New Mexico, could be in line for the job, Pitino said he wanted him to stay with the Lobos and eventually take over for him at St. John’s. But it was all in jest.

“I’m on a [text message group chat] with my whole family and two other people, and they were all kidding about that,” Pitino said.

The 41-year-old Richard is having a big year at New Mexico.

The Lobos are a projected NCAA Tournament team.

New Mexico won 22 games and reached the NIT last year in Richard’s third season as its head coach.

Previously, he was the head coach at Minnesota for eight seasons and worked under his father at Louisville from 2007-09 and 2011-12.

“Richard is one of the bright minds in the game today. He’s a great coach, he’s a great communicator,” the elder Pitino said.

Pitino wants to make one change starting Saturday: fewer minutes for Chris Ledlum and more for Zuby Ejiofor.

Pitino feels that Ledlum is tiring out late in games and wants to get him down to 25 minutes.

He’s averaging 28.9 on the season and has logged at least 30 in six of the team’s 11 Big East contests. That means more minutes for RJ Luis and Drissa Traore.

As for Ejiofor, Joel Soriano’s backup, his play has improved as the year has gone on, particularly on the defensive end.

“We’ve got to get Zuby to play anywhere from 12 to 16 minutes per game, especially since Joel has not played as dominant as he was in the beginning of the year,” Pitino said. “It’s time to do that.”

The plan is to make Ejiofor into a big man who can play both the center and power forward spots in the offseason.

But his ball handling, overall offensive skill set and comfort level at the four aren’t to the point where he can do it yet, which is why Pitino hasn’t tried to play him and Soriano together at all.

Chiefs or Niners

This is what happens when you simply take the money and run.

ACC taps N.C. for '25-29 men's hoops tourneys

The ACC men's basketball tournament will be held in Charlotte in 2025, 2026 and 2028, while Greensboro will host it in 2027 and 2029, the league announced on Thursday.

www.espn.com

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ACC to hold 2025-29 men's basketball tourneys in North Carolina​

The Atlantic Coast Conference will hold five straight men's basketball tournaments in North Carolina starting in 2025, while the women's tournament, which has had a longtime home in Greensboro -- the city of the league's founding -- will split time between there and Charlotte.

The ACC announced future sites for championships in 14 sports Thursday, coming ahead of next season's westward expansion that will add California and Stanford from the Pac-12 as well as SMU from the American Athletic Conference. Yet, in a year that saw the league move its headquarters from Greensboro to downtown Charlotte, the ACC unveiled 42 future championship events -- including those marquee basketball tournaments -- for its home state.

In a news conference in Charlotte, commissioner Jim Phillips estimated the events could have an economic impact of more than $400 million.

The men's basketball tournament -- next held in Washington, D.C. in March -- will take place in Charlotte in 2025, 2026 and 2028, while Greensboro will host it in 2027 and 2029. That five-year run in North Carolina would be the longest in the state since holding 11 straight in Charlotte and Greensboro from 1990 to 2000.

Greensboro has hosted the men's tournament a league-high 29 times, while Charlotte is tied for second with 13.

That would comply with a state budget provision tied to obtaining $15 million in state funds with its headquarters move last year. That provision required the league hold four men's basketball tournaments in the state among numerous championship events by the 2032-33 academic year.

The women's tournament has been held in Greensboro in all but one year dating to 2000 and will host again next month. The tournament will return in 2025 before going to Charlotte in 2027, with 2026 plans to be determined later.

The league's announcements also included that baseball will bounce between Charlotte and Durham through 2029, as will gymnastics, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's tennis, women's golf and rowing.

The football championship game is slated for Charlotte through 2030.

Damn. Some incredible games over such a long period. Ofc we’re on a 6-game losing streak. 🤯

**2013: Beat them in final seconds in a dismal year thanks to the steak and 3 by Fuquan Edwin.

**2014: Upset them at the BET on Sterling Gibbs’ step back shot.

**2015: Beat them in OT at The Rock to get ranked when Khadeen Carrington was a machine.

**2016: BET Championship win over them. One of the great moments for SHU fans, IMO.

**2017: They beat us at the BET when Angel Delgado missed that layup at the buzzer.

**2018: They beat us by 1 in OT at The Rock when ranked top-5 after Carrington missed the FT in regulation, probably would’ve gotten us off the #8-seed NCAAT line.

**2019: Beat them at The Rock in front of packed house to earn an NCAAT bid.

**2019: That great BET Championship game rematch where Myles Powell missed the GW at the buzzer.

**2020: We finally beat them down there, first time in 20+ years or something.

**2020: They beat us by 2 in that killer at The Rock to prevent an outright BE RS title.

**2021: The 1-point loss when the ball went through Mamu’s hands.

**2022: Beat us twice by 6 points each, the first game when Tyrese Samuel and Ike Obiagu where on the COVID DNP. Both games 1 possession in final minute.

**2023: Beat us twice by 4 points each, that game at The Rock with the killer turnovers down the stretch in a 1-poss game under a minute doomed our NCAA chances

The fact that you cannot currently watch a replay of the game tonight on fox sports’ website is absolutely pathetic

What does the game being on FS2 instead of FS1 have to do with the ability to broadcast it on the website after the fact?

Thanks Joe and his NO BORDERS cronies

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Maybe shu can get innovative on NIL

I noticed at the end of the game vs. Georgetown, Sanders replaced Coleman and Bediako remained on the bench when EHE fouled out. Were these two players in the doghouse? I see no injuries to report on either. Thoughts?

Weve gotta find a way to keep them out of foul trouble. That 1 extra ticky tack foul, reach in or foul 25 ft from the basket is crucial. Especially kadary. Hes gotta stay on the court. We become highly vulnerable when he sits. Would like to see more dre in the post when the offense gets stagnant and cant make anything happen. We looked ao much better when we stopped hoisting 3s.

How can ESPN not even get a stock Seton Hall photo for bubble watch?! 😂